quilts

Quilts I have known (and been)

Here are some photos of a few of the quilts I have sewn over the past few years. Since I never took pictures of the ones I gave away, these are mostly the ones I kept, which are only a few. Thanks to the family members that took pictures and sent them to me!

This was my first quilting effort several years (many?) ago. I was unhappy that I couldn't find three good white fabrics to make a blue and white striped top, but the pale blue isn't too bad. Logcabin--blue and white

Lover's Knot--green and blue I originally made this 'lover's knot' pattern to keep in reserve as a wedding present for the next friend to get married, but I wasn't happy with the finishing workmanship ( I thought the back turned out badly), so I kept it. I liked the fabrics too much to let it go anyway.

This was the first attempt at an Irish chain pattern, and I got ambitious and did a triple chain. I was in love with the little black print in the middle, and wanted to use it right away. I wish I had bought more of it. Anyhow, the quilt didn't turn out too bad, considering. I made it to lay on top of a wooden cedar chest that I have. Triple Irish Chain--green

Bugs--red and yellow One of my more recent projects, this was inspired by a bunch of great bug prints in the fabric store where I worked for a summer before moving. I machine-quilted it with flowers and butterflies, despite the pathetic performance of my sewing machine (which can barely handle straight seams).

Here we have my only hand-sewn wall hanging project. I wanted to see if I could. I'm rather pleased with it--I used a nice greeny batik that I like a lot. Snail's Trails--batik

Aaron and Wakako's Quilt--blue and gold This is one of my latest projects that I made for my brother-in-law's wedding present. It's a joke; the dark-blue celestial fabric used to be his curtains (ten yards worth!). I also made it a blue-and-gold one because we graduated from Cal Berkeley.

And here is the wedding present for my younger brother-in-law. We've had a lot of weddings lately. It's a 'jewel-box' pattern, and I had a lot of fun picking out the colors and trying to get them to go together. I didn't always succeed, but nobody seems to mind. Jewel Box--multi

Works in progress

Flower Garden Here is my big project. My great-grandmother sewed several of these flower garden quilt tops by hand in the mid-50's--one for each of her grandchildren. Two or three of them were never finished, and I got this top from my grandmother, Marjorie. With some good advice from an exprerienced woman at a fabric store, I pressed all the seams the right way and started quilting each flower by hand. All this work was considerably slowed when my arms started hurting from too much typing, and I had to leave it for several months. Now I'm working on the binding, which is almost finished. Recently we dug up another, identical, unfinished quilt top in a closet--help!

This is a Christmas tablecloth I'm making for a my 'host' family in Denmark, where I stayed for a year in high school. I'll criss-cross it with sparkly gold thread when I sew it to the backing. Christmas--gold

Nine Patch Here we have a scrap quilt with tiny pieces. Most of the fabrics are from former quilt projects; either mine or my mom's. Some of the fabric was taken from Marjorie. I thought I'd never finish all those nine-patches, and I haven't even got to the hard part yet! The border will have appliqued tulip-like flowers and leaves on it.

Here are some online quilting sources I have found interesting, useful, or amusing.

The Quilt Channel

The Quilt Gallery Magazine

The Worst Quilt Contest

This was my first quilting effort several years (many?) ago. I was unhappy that I couldn't find three good white fabrics to make a blue and white striped top, but the pale blue isn't too bad.
	I originally made this 'lover's knot' pattern to keep in reserve as a wedding present for the next friend to get married, but I wasn't happy with the finishing workmanship ( I thought the back turned out badly), so I kept it. I liked the fabrics too much to let it go anyway.
This was the first attempt at an Irish chain pattern, and I got ambitious and did a triple chain. I was in love with the little black print in the middle, and wanted to use it right away. I wish I had bought more of it. Anyhow, the quilt didn't turn out too bad, considering. I made it to lay on top of a wooden cedar chest that I have.
	One of my more recent projects, this was inspired by a bunch of great bug prints in the fabric store where I worked for a summer before moving. I machine-quilted it with flowers and butterflies, despite the pathetic performance of my sewing machine (which can barely handle straight seams).
Here we have my only hand-sewn wall hanging project. I wanted to see if I could. I'm rather pleased with it--I used a nice greeny batik that I like a lot.
	This is one of my latest projects that I made for my brother-in-law's wedding present. It's a joke; the dark-blue celestial fabric used to be his curtains (ten yards worth!). I also made it a blue-and-gold one because we graduated from Cal Berkeley.
And here is the wedding present for my younger brother-in-law. We've had a lot of weddings lately. It's a 'jewel-box' pattern, and I had a lot of fun picking out the colors and trying to get them to go together. I didn't always succeed, but nobody seems to mind.

	Here is my big project. My great-grandmother sewed several of these flower garden quilt tops by hand in the mid-50's--one for each of her grandchildren. Two or three of them were never finished, and I got this top from my grandmother, Marjorie. With some good advice from an exprerienced woman at a fabric store, I pressed all the seams the right way and started quilting each flower by hand. All this work was considerably slowed when my arms started hurting from too much typing, and I had to leave it for several months. Now I'm working on the binding, which is almost finished. Recently we dug up another, identical, unfinished quilt top in a closet--help!
This is a Christmas tablecloth I'm making for a my 'host' family in Denmark, where I stayed for a year in high school. I'll criss-cross it with sparkly gold thread when I sew it to the backing.
	Here we have a scrap quilt with tiny pieces. Most of the fabrics are from former quilt projects; either mine or my mom's. Some of the fabric was taken from Marjorie. I thought I'd never finish all those nine-patches, and I haven't even got to the hard part yet! The border will have appliqued tulip-like flowers and leaves on it.